Class, what is the biggest single-roof solar installation in North-America? “Toyota’s” everyone says out loud.

The Japanese from Toyota decided they need to be greener so they installed 242,000 sqf of solar panels above their North America Parts Center California (NAPCC) manufacturing plant. That’s a lot of roof that’s going to get the sun’s energy and make electricity out of it. Not sure if you’re familiar with the figures, but the 10,417 solar modules that SunPower installed, have a total capacity of 2.3 megawatts, will cover for 60% of the factory’s energy needs and is expected to avoid some 6.4 million pounds of CO2 emissions per year.

I’m curious though. Who’ll wash the roof from now on, because to ensure maximum power it has to stay clean. And that thing is bigger than 4 football fields …

In their press release, Toyota said:

“NAPCC electricity costs per kilowatt-hour have increased 266 percent since 1992. Facility energy conservation efforts have reduced electricity usage by 28.5 percent during the past five years, but annual electricity use still remains over 5,788,000 kilowatt-hours.

The system was designed and built by SunPower, using its high-efficiency panels that deliver 50 percent more power per unit than conventional panels. A lightweight state-of-the-art SunPower mounting system further maximizes power delivery.”

They sure have a great deal here, but my concern is .. who’ll break that “record” in North America and who? Place your bets!

via TreeHugger

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Thomas Doerflein (44) died of natural causes, a heart attack. Berlin investigators said “other causes of death, in particular involvement by another party, are ruled out from a medical point of view”.

Thomas became famous as the keeper of Knut, a polar bear. Doerflein hand-reared Knut, spending some 150 straight days with cub giving him milk and porridge and telling him stories of how he didn’t have to worry about melting glaciers because the big bear maker in the sky would care for him.

Doeflein (sounds like ‘doer of fine’ things) made front page news when he died. I remember when my dad died. We were all sad to seem him go, but for the most part we could understand his death. It happens. The problem was his miniature poodle Samson. Samson just walked about looking sad and wondering where his master was. This is my question – Who’s going to tell Knut that his keeper is gone?

John McCain is apt to come out on top this November in the presidential election. You wouldn’t know that he has a chance to win by reading anything else in the media. Thank goodness, we bloggers have a voice.

Reason 1 – John McCain has suspended his campaign to help push the bailout plan. Gosh, a congressman who works. What a novelty.

Reason 2 – Barak is playing catch up to McCain giving consideration to halting his crazy money raising/spending activities, too.

Reason 3 – McCain believes something needs to be done to combat global warming. I might add, that none of these two reasons so far are why I would vote for him. The bailout seems ridiculous and global climate change is not something we can fight..unless he means educating the world on being better stewards of the planet. I believe in treating our planet better.

Reason 4 – Palin is his running mate. I caught a glimpse of a CNN report the other morning that was criticizing McCain for his choice of Palin because she does not buy into all the human caused global climate change hype. I don’t see this as a point to criticize at all. If McCain and Palin thought exactly alike, why would we need both of them?

McCain does not think of himself first, he works, he leads, and even he’s not always right, he know how to listen or least choose team members who are not yes-people. That’s why he’ll win.

Image courtesy of NathanF

Ed Westwick and Drew Barrymore are making their contribution to global climate change. The celeb blogosphere is going volcanic with news of the two hanging out and well, doing other PG-rated things…that we know of. Maybe more. Steamy, hot…and other such passionate words are being tossed about regarding a recent make out session between the 21-year old star and 33-year old star.

Truthfully, I don’t know about those things. What I do know, is that Barrymore has a passion for making the world a better place. Barrymore gets it. She worked with the World Food Program and made trips to Africa to document the goings on there. (more…)

What are the key elements that would make your city life even better and best of all even greener? Well the guys at SustainLane judge 16 areas of urban sustainability ranging from the (new this year) water quality, to public transportation and environmental policies. The group ranked 50 of the United States’ most populated cities according to their sustainability.

SO what are the most sustainable cities in the US, this year? And the winners are Portland (OR), San Francisco (CA), and Seattle (WA).

I can’t say much about their report but knowing these guys, I suppose their analysis is thorough and they did take into consideration many of the factors that we may forget when thinking about our own city.

Among the winners, we can find the most expensive cities in the US including New York, Boston, San Jose and San Francisco and I suppose it’s for a good reason. But, wait up, because we, Bill Belew (the other guy behind GreenPacks), is living somewhere close to SF so I guess he’d be entitled to comment on the report. And yes, the picture is with San Francisco…

Where do you live and what do you think about your city’s sustainability?

Image courtesy of (nz)Dave

“A Touch of Pink” fashion show is happening in Toronto. Eight Canuck designers revealed their designs as part of “The White Cashmere Collection” and “Fashion with Compassion for a Future without Breast Cancer.”

GP picked up on this idea because we think making good use of recycled paper makes good sense. BUT!!! We don’t want this kind of paper recycled, do we? Recycled toilet paper would give new meaning to the “Hey, there’s a stain on your dress.” Okay, I agree, that’s nasty.

So, what happens to these girls when they get caught in the rain? Seriously, isn’t there a limit to what to do, what can be done with paper?

Would you wear something made out of toilet paper?

Can you imagine the conversation – “If you are not careful, I am going to TP you.”

“Oh, would you, please?”

In the name of conservation, of course.

Chinese stars are trying to score points with the public and save God’s critters, too. Or maybe she is thinking about dinner. (Bad joke). Chinese Actress, Sun Li wrote a book with the title “Take Me Home” which shared stories of stray animals. Yeah, I hear some fellows thinking out loud they wish Sun Li would take them home. It’s not that kind of stray!!

The book will be released in Beijing in conjunction with the opening of a photo exhibition.

So…does Sun Li really care about the animals or is this a publicity thing? GP doesn’t know. But, we do know that it’s not above stars and starlets to make such moves for a good PR image. Let’s hope she does really care. And, not just about dinner.

So, the question is “Will Sarah Palin deny that polar bears are resorting to cannibalism?” Or is it “bearbalism?”

On CNN news this morning the announcer said that Sarah Palin and presidential candidate John McCain are at odds on human caused global warming. In my mind, this is a good thing. If both of them were thinking exactly alike, one of them would be redundant, no?

Palin acknowledges climate change, melting glaciers in some parts and all that, and that the polar bears are scrambling. She doesn’t think it’s caused by humans. FWIW, I agree with her.

But, another CNN report says that the polar bears are starting to feast on one another for survival. GP wonders what Palin has to say about that. My bet is she’ll say something like, “they must be really really hungry. But, not because of human caused global warming.” Sometimes these kinds of things happen when you look at the big picture of history.

What do you think?

One of the things I love the most about writing on GP is that I learn while I do it. Do you know what’s the largest freshwater fish in South America? It’s called pirarucu or arapaima and can reach up to 4.5 meters and 200 kg, as an adult. Large pirarucus of more than 2 m are seldom found in the wild today because the meat is said to be delicious and they get harpooned or caught in large nets, even though it’s illegal.

But why am I telling you all these?

A catch of 66 pirarucus has been confiscated from poachers who were transporting them to a market in Manaus, capital of the Brazilian Amazon region, and as you can obviously see, those fish are extremely big. I do agree with the Police to hunt down those who don’t care about laws and prevent making money from harpooning the pirarucus to death (even put them in jail for that), but where is all that fish meat going?

The other day Bill joked that the police officers and the judges went out to a delicious fish dinner. I hope that’s not true, but I also hope they don’t waste it all, leaving it to rot. How about feeding the hungry? They do delicacies, too, if given for free. Right?

Images copyright : REUTERS/Antonio Menezes-A Critica (BRAZIL)

We all know that in simple words, the Equator is an an imaginary line on the Earth’s surface approximately equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, but what a chemical Equator is, was out of my league. But now I know …

Scientists at the University of York from the University’s Department of Chemistry, discovered an atmospheric chemical equator some 50 km wide up in the skies of the Western Pacific, which is supposed to divide the polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere from the highly polluted atmosphere in the Southern Hemisphere.

The study, which is part of the ACTIVE project (Aerosol and Chemical Transport in Tropical Convection) funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, revealed that carbon monoxide – combustion – increased from 40 parts per billion to the south, to 160 parts per billion in the north. All these were caused by extensive forest fires to the north of the chemical equator.

I’ll have be honest. I never knew that the two chemical and meteorological air masses of the two hemispheres are different, and even though it may not be that important for you and me, scientists who’ve been studying the movement of pollutants and their impact on climate change, are happy to include this theory in their model simulations that will help with pollution mapping.

If you’d like to read more about it, check out ScienceDaily.